Five of the worst: Liverpool transfer flops

After Fabio Borini's dislocated shoulder injury in Liverpool's 5-0 demolition of a much weakened Swansea side on Sunday - an injury which has ruled the Italian out for the remainder of the season - GMF looks at the big-money Liverpool signings that just never seemed to fulfill their promise.

5. Alberto Aquilani

Signed from Roma in 2009, Aquilani was highly thought of amongst the major clubs in Europe before his move to Anfield. It was widely believed that Aquilani was brought in to replace Reds hero Xabi Alonso, who had just departed for Real Madrid.

However, an injury-hit spell, coupled with lacklustre performances at Anfield, soon meant that the Italian's dream move turned sour. He was subsequently deemed surplus to requirements by new Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson, who had taken over from the man that signed him from Roma, Rafa Benitez.

Two loan spells back to Italy - to Juventus and Milan respectively - was followed by a permanent move to Fiorentina in August 2012. Liverpool spent £17 million on the former Roma man, and taking into account his massive wages, it proved to be a very bad deal indeed.

4. Robbie Keane

Speaking of bad deals, here is one that Liverpool's hierarchy got all wrong. Signed for an incredible £20.3 million from Spurs, the Irishman was brought in to ease the burden on Liverpool's main striker Fernando Torres.

However Keane's form was patchy at best. A few goals here and there punctuated long goalless streaks at Anfield, and it wasn't long before his old club Spurs came to his rescue and signed Keane for a cut price £12 million fee.

Let me get the calculator out. That's a loss of just over £8 million with a very poor return. The only winners in this deal seemed to be the north London club.

3. Fabio Borini

Although it is a little unfair to include Borini in this list, I have had to narrow it down somewhat as I could have had ten players on this list.

Borini followed Brendan Rodgers to Anfield after playing under Rodgers at both Chelsea and Swansea. He had signed for Roma in 2011 but when Rodgers came calling the move was too hard for the Italian to turn down.

Liverpool spent around £10.5 million on Borini and he arrived with high expectations. However these expectations did not last long at all, after Borini was ruled out for three months in October 2012 with a broken foot.

He did however make his comeback in January against Manchester United, the team he got injured against three months previously. But on Sunday he suffered yet another setback in his Liverpool career - a dislocated shoulder ruling him out for the rest of the season.

2. Joe Cole

Another man who came to Anfield with high expectations as an England international and a Premier League winner with Chelsea. Although Liverpool signed him on a free transfer, he still deserves a place on this list on account of his lack of game time and high wages, not to mention the fact that Liverpool reportedly paid Cole £3 million to leave Anfield.

He was sent off on his Liverpool debut against Arsenal and after a very poor season he was sent off to France on loan. He returned to the Liverpool bench the following season, and finally got his move away from Anfield and back to West Ham on a free transfer, although as mentioned, Liverpool coughed up money for the former-Chelsea man to leave.

1. Andy Carroll

How many of you guessed this one? Signed on transfer deadline day in January 2011 for an astonishing £35 million from Newcastle United, Carroll is easily the worst Liverpool signing in the past decade.

Another man with so much promise, he arrived at Anfield with many pundits believing that then Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was panic buying at the last second due to Fernando Torres' departure to Chelsea. He made 44 appearances for the Reds scoring just 11 goals.

That doesn't really say £35 million to me. Carroll was loaned out to West Ham in the summer of 2012, and if the London side can survive in the Premier League, they have the option of signing Carroll on a permanent deal.

There are other players that perhaps deserve a special mention, so let us know who you can think of that proved to be a disastrous Liverpool signing...

DISCLAIMER: This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeFootball Writing Academy and does not represent the views of GiveMeFootball.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article. GiveMeFootball.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributor

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DISCLAIMER

This article has been written by a member of the GiveMeSport Writing Academy and does not represent the views of
GiveMeSport.com or SportsNewMedia. The views and opinions expressed are solely that of the author credited at the top of this article.
GiveMeSport.com and SportsNewMedia do not take any responsibility for the content of its contributors.

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